What Are The Smelliest Things In The World?

While we use our sense of sight and hearing almost constantly, our sense of smell is not used as often. Still, through smell, we can experience some of the most intense sensations we ever felt. The smell is also often tied to our memories, in the way that smelling something familiar can evoke the feeling of nostalgia quite easily.

Many positive things are tied to our sense of smell, and it is very important to smell nice these days. However, things that smell bad can be just as impactful. The physical reaction caused by bad smells can be quite intense, and in this article, we will name some of the things considered to be the smelliest in the world.

7. Uranus

Well, this is funny in a weird way. Nevermind the pun, we’re talking about the planet, even though it doesn't technically count as a thing ''in the world'', we feel it should definitely be on this list.

So the award for the smelliest planet goes to Uranus. Kind of fitting, if you ask us. Jokes aside, it was recently found out that the atmosphere of Uranus holds large amounts of hydrogen sulfide, a gas that has a distinct, awful smell. There, a joke with a scientific explanation behind it. If only it were always so simple.

6. Ancient Excrement

Okay, this one is super disgusting, but you wanted to find the answer on what the smelliest things are, so here you go. We will keep it short, however.

Archaeologists that were digging through an ancient Danish city found some toilets from the 14th century. It turns out those toilets were still smelling of feces, or poop, whatever you want to call it. Yup, while not the smelliest, it is a smell that can survive the longest it seems.

5. The Shore Earwig

Plenty of people are scared of bugs and other insects. It is a phobia that we have become accustomed to. Now imagine being scared of bugs, and meeting one that also attacks your sense of smell with its awful odor? Yeah, it doesn’t sound fun at all. Meet the Shore Earwig, a bug that squirts out a substance with a horrible smell to defend itself.

However, this bug only does that once it has entered the mouth of its predator, to make them spit it out. Sounds like a plan to us, remind us never to try eating one of these, eh?

4. The Lesser Anteater

The lesser anteater may look like an extremely cute animal, and it may act like one as well, but it sure as hell does not smell cute. It turns out that skunks aren’t the smelliest animals at all! The title belongs to the Lesser Anteater, which is almost seven times smellier than our good friend Pepé Le Pew.

So if you ever run into this cute looking animal, be careful, because they use their awful smell to ward off predators. If it considers you a predator, you might not enjoy what happens next. Careful! 

3. Vieux Boulogne

Continuing our list with the smelliest things in the world, this time, we will talk about cheese. Yes, the Vieux Boulogne is a kind of cheese and is considered to smell worse than any other cheese in existence. An interesting anecdote concerning this cheese is when a scientist used an electronic nose, a device used to detect tuberculosis and urinary infections, on the cheese.

You can already guess what happened; then, the cheese tested positive. Yikes! And people eat that? We think we’ll take a rain check on that one, but thanks.

2. Rafflesia Arnoldii

This flower is also known as the Stinking Corpse Lily. Its smell is described as that of a rotting and decaying corpse, while also being reminiscent of the smell of fish. These flowers can be found all over southeast Asia, and are considered the national flowers of Indonesia.

The flower itself is quite large, being able to reach widths of more than 3 feet, which makes it the largest flower in the world. It is also considered the absolute smelliest flower in the world. These flowers blossom every several months but have an extremely short life span of 5 days. Interestingly, the reason for the smell is to attract flies that eventually pollinate it.

1. Durian

Durian is a fruit notorious for its extremely bad smell. One event involving this fruit is especially interesting, and it happened at a university in Melbourne. Due to the intense smell of durian fruit, the entire building had to be evacuated because it was suspected that there was a gas leak. There was no gas leak, and it was just the smell of durian that was carried over through the air conditioning in the building.

This fruit has been the subject of extensive research due to its smell, and it was discovered that it contains 44-odour active compounds that can smell like a large number of things. Some of those include awful smells like a rotten egg, while others are pleasant, like the smell of caramel.